The great thing about line under, linebacker over, shift is you can send pressure from both sides and the defense looks the same. Secondly, as we will discover later, there are several other blitzes out of the Nickel Normal that can be set up the same way, some with zone coverage, others with man coverage. Once we have a particular look then we want to build our pressure package off of it. Not every blitz is going to fit our particular alignment, but we want to be sure that we have compliments between man and zone. Secondly, we want to make sure that we can get pressure from both sides using the same alignment. These are principles for a solid defense that keeps the opponent guessing and keeping blockers in rather than sending receivers out.
Setup 2:
1) Shift the defensive line to the left and crash it right.
2) Spy or zone the DE on the left of the screen. On the snap control him and drop into coverage.
3) Global hot blitz the linebackers.
4) Shift linebackers to the right.
Your opponent is at a guessing point now. Where will the pressure come from? Will it come from the right or the left? Now we force the offense to keep an extra player in for blocking purposes.
Situational Usage:
· 3rd and long – this is a great call to get off the field. So when the offense is in 3rd and 8 or more this is a call that one might make.
· Back up inside the red zone with the offense threatening to score (2nd and 3rd and long, medium or short). This is also a great call to make if the offense gets in the red zone. Because the defensive backs have less ground to cover then the threat of the big play is not so big.
The first move is to shift the defensive line to the left, however, this time crash it to the right. You can also go ahead and global hot zone the linebackers at this point. These two adjustments can be made prior to the offense getting to the line.
Shift the linebackers to the right. This adjustment can also be made prior to the offense getting to the line of scrimmage. Press Coverage is optional at this point as well. The one thing I would caution about press coverage is that one wide receiver will always get off the press before the others. It’s random and the player on offense has to scan the field to find that one player, but if that player is on a fly route it could be a problem for the defense because it is a big play waiting to happen.
The last adjustment prior to the snap is to give the Defensive End on the left of the screen a QB Spy assignment. I control the defensive end in this version and drop over the middle looking for short and intermediate routes to the TE or the slot receiver.
The entire defensive line will crash to the right of the offensive line (left for the defense). Notice the left tackle on the right side of the screen. He will not pull all the way over to the other side to pick up the Middle Linebacker. I like placing the DE on the Spy here in the event my opponent reads the pressure quickly I can simply release the DE and let him chase the QB. My first assignment however is to drop over the middle and take out the slant or drag.
The Defensive End on the right of the screen will take on the offensive tackle, allowing the Middle Linebacker to get around the edge to pressure the quarterback.
He gets to the QB and disrupts his timing. One thing about this set up is if it is run off of the strong side of the offensive formation, the Middle Linebacker will stall slightly because he will run into people and not get around them smoothly. One option is to move him outside slightly so he can get around the traffic without getting caught trying to run around offensive players releasing into passing patterns.
Final Thoughts:
There are still more ways that Nickel Normal Over Storm Brave can be set up. However, I will save those for later. For now, I have given three different versions of this one blitz. One of the things I have tried to do with all of the versions of the blitz is keep it simply so that you can set them up very quick even if your opponent no huddles.
